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Wednesday, 30 December 2009

'Uncertainty' is the most synonymous word to the word 'life', more so, in case of people like me who are a dilemma for themselves. Ever since 1987, I have been going through such phases in life but this one is an outstanding phase. Simply because I have made a decision which is referred to as 'foolish' by the whole world and when such a majority stands before you, you usually tend to get influenced. Same is the case with me as I have been also made to feel that I took a foolish decision. But, from my heart, from my mind, from my within, I do not have any such regrets. Its only because of the external influences

Oh, by the way, I have not yet shared what the decision is. Nothing big but big enough to make life go crazy. I have quit from my job at ICICI Bank. And surprisingly, I have not been able to understand why I did so even after 45 days of research. I submitted my resignation through the intranet. No one except Priyanka knew it. The moment I submitted the resignation online, it was an instant news on the floor and I could see all kinds of reactions around me. Some were almost in tears while some smiled. Some showed sympathy while some laughed at my foolishness. And yeah, my parents, I told them quite late about this. And I have been unable to judge their reaction till now

But everyone, including me, had a common question, 'What next?'. I had to answer something to keep my dignity before those who laughed at me. I could share the truth that I was clueless to only those people who had some sadness in them for me

The plan had been there ever since I completed the 3 month internship in March 2009. But somehow, I kept delaying for various reasons. Sometimes, I thought that I should find a job before I quit this. Sometimes, I thought I shall do it next month. Sometimes, life got so busy that the thought was erased. Sometimes, life was so tough that I could not afford such a thought. I definitely must say that, sometimes, I felt good too and did not find any meaning in leaving the job. For the kind of person I am, I know that what I think now will never be there the next moment

On 17 Nov 2009, I decided that I must resign and I just did that right away. I knew that, had I delayed for a few minutes, something would make me decide otherwise. It was 11.55 pm on 17 Nov that I submitted my request. It was important that I submit it on that day only as that would relieve me from work on 31 Dec exactly. A single day's delay would make me work in 2010 also, which my superstitious mind did not want me to do. In the process of complying of the notice period of 45 days (17 Nov to 31 Dec), I have been thinking a lot about that question, 'What next?'. And honestly, as on 4.20 pm (I don't know why 420 comes so often in my life while trying to analyze life) on 30 Dec, I am still as blank as a black board having not seen a chalk ever in its lifetime. Alternatively, you may also say that I am black board which has seen only chalk on it and never say a duster and in the process, a whole lot of writing has made it only a garbage. In these days, there have been variety of rumors that spread across the floor at my workplace like I got a job in HSBC, Infosys and many other companies, I am going to London to do an MBA, I got into a PSU Bank as a PO, etc. I, honestly, never initiated any of these

More than finding an answer to this question, what was sounding more important for me was finding the answer for the other question, i.e., 'Why did I resign?'. I felt, its possible for me to decide what's next only when I know what made me leave this. I can take a right decision only when I know my priorities, likings, dislikings, etc appropriately. In fact, off late, I have been able to cope up fine with the job too. The salary too has gone up by 25% considering that I am working in the night. The chances of being sent to branch banking, though I am not interested and consider my current profile far better than branch banking profile, have also gone up considering the large retail expansion plans of the bank

All these reasons did not seem to convince me when I asked one question to myself, 'Where will I be in the next 5 years if I continue?'. Seeing all people around me who are having a work experience of around 4-8 years and have a similar educational qualification as me, I could farely evaluate my position in 5 years and that did not seem convincing to me in any manner. I had to go beyond. I realized that no effort can take me to the position that I desire as my qualification does not permit it. Only being talented and hard working is not sufficient as you need to have the eligibility criteria as well. I have been observing all the newspaper ads in the recruitment space. For all the position that I desire to be, I satisfy all conditions viz age, talent, skill, experience, etc but the door would open up only if I had an MBA from a recognized B School or a ICAI certification as a Chartered Accountant. My performance would be seen only if I were qualified to perform

I understood the bitter fact that I have destroyed my life by ignoring my CA studies. And all through the past 1 year, each time I saw an ad asking for a CA, I have hated myself beyond anything for the wrong decisions that I made. Seeing practically, I can, to some extent, say that I made decisions as per the situations' demand and continuing CA was never an option to execute. I joined IFBI after my degree to ensure that I will get a job in 3 months flat and start earning. The process took 6 months. I have been working from the past one year and have earned about Rs 1.5 lacs. But, I never felt this as an achievement as I had to pay Rs 66000 to IFBI and spent Rs 30000 to survive in Bangalore and Rs 50000 to survive in Hyderabad and Rs 20000 for miscellaneous reasons (I spent more than I earned and I still owe Rs 16000 to Vivek. The loan taken to finance IFBI education is still outstanding for Rs 32000. The same amount has been used to buy my laptop. Perfect tally) and thus, as per the terms of accounting standards, all I did was merely a mistake. I spent an amount to earn to earn the same amount and in the process, lost 1 and half years of precious time that just went off giving no results to me. Add to it those 2 years during BCom when I could have joined articleship and completed PE-II as well. I could have easily been a chartered accountant in July 2009. And my income till now would have been positive as CA course would cost me some Rs 50000 and I would have earned it back and also some few thousands (can dare to say lacs) more too. This is when I realized the importance of dreaming big and doing big. Never settle for a small aim. It only makes you smaller. Set a big aim. It makes you bigger

The current condition of my life is too critical. Even a slightest financial mismatch can create big blunders. But, I can not hold myself anymore in this meek life. Even if I start today, I would reach my goal by 2013. Thats fair. I deserve this punishment for all hasty decisions that I made rather than accepting all adversities and moving towards the goal

Its going to be very tough to stick to this decision. I have not seen educational books from over a year (in fact, about 3 years as the college books were more like a novel which I never read too. Moreover, my choice of subjects was so magical that I did not have books for them. That's perhaps the biggest reason why I scored very high marks in these subjects as I would write my own content rather than trying to write something that has already been written by someone. In fact, I believe, there should be no standard books. We must be asked to express our views on each topic in the exams rather than the definitions that have been told by someone). I have not sat in serious classrooms for over decades. The classes in my school were more fun as I was a child. The classes during higher secondary education were mostly missed by me as I carried a lot of other responsibilities. The classes in degree... Should I say? The classes did run. I either would be busy doing something else in the class or out of the class or we would be roaming across the city or busy in some other activity and thus classrooms never took an important perspective in our lives. Further, its been ages since I stopped writing. Ever since computers have come, writing with a pen has become a rare act

Above all these physical aspects, the biggest issue that I have to deal with is the mental set up. Once a person starts earning, a totally new lifestyle begins. And once you adapt to such a life, its very difficult to come back to a life that involves serious struggles on the ground. Battling with the mind that has become a slave at work for the wage and the hand that irks for not having cash on hand to be spent at its own will and wish is a real big challenge. Money is no less than drugs. It addicts you. You feel lifeless without it on the planet earth. So, continuing education is one option that I can not again, practically, think of. I have been with the same mindset from years. I have to somehow change it

Going for a job is one thought that I would not consider. I have understood that, for the qualification that I possess (though my score is superior), I can get ground floor labor jobs only. I want to some intellectual job which has certain value. I want to do something which can bring out the best in me. Working in a bank and creating accounts and deposits is something anyone can do. Even if I be a topper and record holder in this, it is in no way going to add any value (it only increases quantity). I want to do something in which the brain has a larger role to play creatively rather than following a set process through which the work is done. And this level of job is called as senior management job. To go for this, you either need 20-25 years of experience or qualification and I do not have both

Another thought is that of beginning the business that I always intended to start up, i.e., stock broking. The task would be quite difficult and it would need certain investment too which is the biggest barrier

There are many other think inks that are thrown on my sheet which also includes doing something creative (I would reveal more when the work nears completion). All I can say is that I have thrown my life once again into the world of challenges. At least, from now, life would be lively again and the monotony would not exist. I would definitely miss my workplace and people and more importantly, my bank balance on the last day of every month. There has been a lot that I have learnt over the past year. I'll miss you ICICI

For the moment, in my life, only one thing is decided. I am going to Bangalore. When? How? And most importantly, Why? No clear idea

Thursday, 24 December 2009

Master the 9 powerful principles inside and Discover the Diamond in You. You may or may not discover the diamond (for that matter, even a nickel coin) but the author, publisher, foreward writer and the upcoming movie collaborators definitely did. They have sold their dreams to you to make their dreams come true

What began as a marvellous ad campaign across newspapers nationwide is now the nation's best sold book. Hats off to the great mangement economist, Mr. Arindham Chaudhuri, who has proved it time and again that the economics of this nation are going to be the same, i.e., 'The rich will become richer and the poor will get poorer'. I was impressed by the publicity and decided to buy that book. In a couple of days, the courier arrived and I had a tussle with the courier guy. He delivered the book and started his bike and I shouted at him to stop. I asked him, where is the book? He said that he doesn't know. I reconfirmed and he said that he doesn't know what is contained in the courier packet. I opened the packet assuming that flipkart might have forgotten keeping the book inside. But, to my amazement, the book was there. The courier guy went and I came back in. I quickly opened the dazzling book which had almost ZERO weight. I started reading the book and here is what I got to learn from it. I believe, I have learnt to succeed. The only difference is that I am not going to do what Arindham has told but what he has done. Arindam's passion for India has made him learn India and Indians by heart and he has hit the nail on the head perfectly, each time and every time

In India, 2 things sell like hotcakes. Sex and Shahrukh. And this book had the latter in it. The frontpage highlighted more about the success icon of billion hearts motivating all the fans of Shahrukh (99.9% who openly agree they are and 0.1% who deny but can't help being his fan) to go and snatch a copy of the book. Shahrukh has always come as a big business buck to companies. Be it ICICI Bank which rocked the NRI (as well as domestic) market with his photographs and signatures on the website, be it Bharti Airtel for which Shahrukh was a direct soul speaker, be it Dish TV calling of 'Santusht mat raho' or be it IIPM's re-branding campaign after all the information (should I use the word 'fraud') that has been openly written by the students on the internet, his has been a one name which has turned around businesses. Making use of his name in the book promotion, Arindham has proved to us that he is the greatest marketing guru who can easily sell a comb to the balds

Amitabh Bachchan is one name that Indian households respect so much that people stand up immediately on hearing his name as if the national anthem is playing (Sorry to say but most don't even stand up when the national anthem plays). Putting one line in his name has again worked splendid wonders. Remember 'Slumdog Millionaire'? When the movie was rocking and won oscars and put India on a rolls in the Oscar awards ceremony, our dear Amitabh and Arindham criticized it and asked people not to watch it. Read their blogs

Had the book not had these 2 names along with that of Arindam, I would not pay more than Rs 30 for the 10 pages (Rs 5 for the papers, Rs 5 for the publisher, Rs 5 for the author, Rs 5 for the courier and Rs 10 for the value derived). YES, 10 pages is all it is. Convert the font to regular, ie, arial/times roman 10, the content will not be more than 10 pages. There are many pictures that the author has failed to describe correctly in a way that can add meaning to the content. Not the forget that 25% of the book is again advertising. 10 initial pages are just there for no reason. The preface is written to sell more and more books. And what a stunt? If you have not purchased Arindam's previos books, you will buy them as well because the preface speaks more about the success of those books

Arindam keeps calling you diamond and puts you on cloud 9. The feeling of appreciation is one which can make a human being go crazy. Call a girl beautiful and she will be ready to help you. The management guru has learnt this concept very well. As he says, he makes everyone in IIPM feel like diamonds irrespective of what they are. Thus, when a person is on a heightened sense, he makes decisions which, most times, turn out to be foolish. You might have heard enough stories where people have looted kingdoms by offering gifts (Britishers did it the same way) and this is one modern example for the same management concept. Do I call it buttering or in more local language 'maskafying'? And then praising all people (who are going to share the profits of the book) as very good people, very successful people, knowledgeable and real diamonds. Arindam openly says that there are only 59 written pages in the book which can be read in just 59 minutes. Arindam also knows that a person will not feel like paying Rs 150 for the book and so, he clearly mentions that the sale proceeds will go to social service. Guru, you are a real guru. You have left greatest people like Peter Drucker, Dhirubhai Ambani, etc way far beyond. You are a real diamond

Arindam has typed the content of the book by SMS. Great. So, the effort has gone, not much to write the book, but to market it

The content of the book is the regular 'do this, do that, think like this, don't think like that, live your dreams, be passionate, set goals, have dreams, work properly, be patient, have good relationships, have a vision, set principles and live by them' and all that regular management blah blah blah. The book is very poorly typed. The illustrations are not appropriate. The examples come nowhere near to the principles explained

I would suggest people interested in such content to buy 'You Can Win' by Mr. Shiv Khera or the Robin Sharma or Stephen Covey series

For those people who love to read for fun, better buy Chetan Bhagat series. By Chetan Bhagat, I remember the amount of effort he makes in writing a book, getting it through, attending seminars, flying from one place to another and working so hard to sell a superb book at a low price of Rs 95. Chetan, why don't you try Shahrukh the next time and break Arindam's record? But, for me, authors like you hold the record. A book must sell by its content and not by its name. Tomorrow, if I publish the same book on someone else's names, it must sell. Thats true success. As I said, I would not pay a dime more than Rs 30 if this book was published without the 3 big brand names. Oh, I missed another, Priyanka Chopra. She is doing Arindam's next film

By writing all this, I neither want to say that someone is bad or something is wrong. I only want to highlight how our economy runs. The rich do all the gimmick and get richer. The poor fall prey and get poorer. This is not the only sector. Take examples of education, industry, finance, etc. IIPM would definitely one school that I wish to highlight for the hefty fees and near to zero results. I never understood the need of so many ad campaigns by a B-school which claims itself to be beyond IIMs. Google for 'IIPM fraud' and you understand the agony of the IIPM alumni. Take the examples of share markets. Have you ever heard of a big stock broker/operator losing money in the worst of criris? Its only the retail that falls prey

Unfortunately, we cannot do anything to fight such adversities that the community of rich people put on the poor except falling for them

Arindam commands Rs 5 lacs per hour for a training session which speaks volumes about his success. The same has been written openly in the book (as I told, the book is more an advertising campaign). I would want to ask this great person on what contribution he has made to this world. I know that every celebrity runs a social organization to answer such questions. So, don't answer me. Answer yourself. Ask yourself some questions like, 'How many IIPM students love you and how many hate you?', 'How many lives have you positively influenced (exclusing friends and families)?', 'How many people have come above poverty line because of you? (you speak so much about India and poverty but have you ever tried to understand that India has the largest number of rich people who have hoarded all money with them and thus created the poor). Give a thought

The whole world knows the truth but still we can't help being your fans just like Shahrukh. Irrespective of whatever celebrities and icons do, we do worship them as idols for they have been our role models. The day I read your essay on world food and financial crisis, I instantly became your fan and for me, economics was equal to Arindam. That was only till I purchased this book. I still honor you for the amount of knowledge you have, the amount of success you have but with book, you have misused the tremendous goodwill that you had gained. I doubt if your next book would sell. Get Shahrukh or get Amitabh or get any superstar, it would be really difficult. But, I am 100% sure that you will do something else and again break your record. Thats your potential of which I and the world are a fan of. Good going Arindam! You are a gem of diamonds. I only wish you would use some part of this shine to help the needy in reality

Wishing all rich people the very best for your next venture to convert the savings of poor people into your investments. I, like all being, just love it because this is what is taught to us to be the definition of SUCCESS

Tuesday, 22 December 2009

Marriage is an official bond between 2 persons to live life together. And when they don't want to live together, they need to sign another bond called divorce. So, what's the big deal in marriage. Just the bond paper that the registrar of marriage issues? I truly belive, YES

In my personal opinion, marriages are an activity to show to the world that these 2 persons are a couple from now and if they are seen together anywhere, do not hit them. The moral policing in our nation is quite high. The moment you see a guy with a girl, things might go awkward. So, do carry your marriage certificate when you go out with your spouse. More so, if you newly married. I guess, for others, you can ignore this idea for the fact that you might not go out with your spouse and if you do, you might keep away from each other with a big sad face. This is more than sufficient evidence for the moral police to note that you are a married couple. The more big faces are, the longer has been the tenure of being together. We Indians, sorry to say, are very sad people. We always tend to keep a boring profile of ourselves. You would hardly see people enjoying life to the fullest. There is so much that can be done in each moment. We don't even do simple things like giving a smile. Sometimes, we feel guilty of smiling in front of people. Sometimes, we feel guilty to speak to someone. I have been thinking always about the reason behind this. To some extent, I feel, its because of the way our brain has been engineered by the environment

Marriage is in some sense switching from a open source software like linux to a licensed version of Windows, of course, single user version. Before marriage, you interacted with all people around you. A guy could see a girl and feel, 'She's hot' and a gal could see a boy and feel, 'He's cool'. But once you are married, your wife/husband is the only person who is everything from hot to cold to warm to cool. Now, this is not a teaser for marriages. Because, I have a point, a serious one, to make. When you are expected to do everything and feel everything with the same person, how far can that person make you feel them. The person must be a blend of Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan, Bill Gates, Local hottie guy/gal, caring, loving, warm, friendly, sexy, rich, leader, understanding and so on. The moment there is a lacking, as a natural human tendency, a person looks out. Didn't we all do it before marriage? So, how big difference can a ceremony make? Yes, it activates the moral police and does not allow you to reach out other people as you did earlier. And when this happens, the person never shows out what he/she has inside. 2 people start living in the same body. What is inside the real person and what is shown out is a polished version

The biggest of all evils is COMPARISION. The day we are born, comparisions begin. Its the nurse who would compare before your mom that you were fairer or darker than the other children delivered on the same day. You father and grandparents steps in to compare whether are a male or a female. Your relatives step in to compare if you were fairer than their children and instantly start feeling jealous of you. They just can't express themselves. Seeing this, your mom feels that they are not happy seeing you. And your mom gets upset. Confusions begin. A kind of insecurity peeps in. You grow and start going to school and each day is a new comparision. He is better than you, she is neatly dressed, he is strong, she is beautiful and so on. And the moment you are compared, you start feeling insecure and do not speak to those people who are better than you in a given skill. And you say that they have a ego problem. Slowly, the matter deepens so much that you start comparing yourself with every other person and you neither are able to cope up with people nor are you able to make use of time. You would want to be friends with only such people who are equal or a little low than you in each and every respect. How many such people can we find? I honestly do not find anyone who is like me in all manners. Differences ought to be there. Else, what on this would we call to be beautiful

This is not the case with westerners. They lead their own lives in their own way. From day one, they are asked to look after themselves and do whatever they want. They do not have this habit of comparing themselves or feeling low, etc. This makes people flexible and hence, lively and charming. They build a good rapport instantly by being nice and polite. Politeness is something that is out of scene for us, specially the males. There are people who do try being polite but that is misread by the world as flirt and so, people do not attempt politeness. Women shy away as if they have just landed on to mother earth and men behave like beasts and thus avoid people to save themselves from moral police which many a times includes own friends, relatives and the spouse himself/herself

Stopping to comparing and starting to live is the best way to live life. Because, if you compare, there are 2 things that happen. Either you feel you are better or the other person is better. If you feel that you are better, you develop a superiority complex immediately and you don't communicate. The other persons feel you are egoistic and you feel they are egoistic. And if you feel that the other person is better, you instantly get into an inferiority complex mode and feel depressed & sad. You might start feeling insulted when you are approached by such persons

I don't understand why and how our minds think so much so deeply and so quickly on these issues. I put the blame on the environment completely. Its the kind of life that we have lead in the past that determines our current thinking. So, before you marry, you need to know how big responsibility you are going to take up in life. Specially, if you are marrying in India. Westerners easily go in for a divorce and carry on with life. Marriage is a very big and serious issue which needs to be addressed with lot of sensinbility & responsibility. You are going to influence the life of another person directly alongwith yours. Are you ready for this challenge and believe that you can make a positive difference to someone's life and can meet all his/her needs? Give a serious thought before you get in

Lets come back to the purpose of writing this post. I attended two marriages at Hyderabad till date. The first one was of Mr. Yajini Babu Sata, my former reporting authority. It was in this place called Kukatpally. The hall was a huge one to accomodate enough number of people. The food was fantastic. The celebrations were grand. The amount of expense was definitely quite high compared to the marriages that I have attended (though the number is so less that I can count them)

The second one was of my colleague, Deepti. She got married to a big wealthy businessman and it was a blast. I just loved the food. From badam milk to 20-30 kinds of sweets to 3-4 kinds of sandwiches to idli vada dosa stuff to pani puri sev puri bhel puri to 3-4 kinds of noodles, salads to different kinds of rotis, chappatis, nan, kulcha to variety of ice creams to what not. It was like a great achievement to even browse through what all was available. The people, I believe, had come down from Rajasthan and it did not appear any less than a palatial wedding. And the expense, well, I can't make even a wild guess

Marriages are definitely a day to remember but what is more important is how memorable will be those days after the marriage. You can buy a million houses but you cannot buy even one home. Homes need to built with limitless effort each day and the process of building homes is an endless task

Wishing you a very happy and blissful married life that build beautiful homes for the coming generation to experience the gift of life happily than ever

Saturday, 5 December 2009

As I plan to step out of the regular respected white collared job of a banker, I am absolutely undecided about the next step I would take in this life. Over the past 22 years, I have been doing whatever I wish to do. And suddenly, this idea of working as per someone else's rules and requirements is something I am unable to adapt to. Jobs are a plenty. I do keep getting offers to join other companies that would pay me sufficiently to lead life and contribute to my family as well. But happiness and satisfaction are two elements that I can never get. If I have a fantastic family, I could be happy. But no family can be so fantastic as life is not a decided journey. You never know what can happen when. And thus, amidst all uncertainties, no one can certify you of a happy or successful life. Life is full of twists and turns. If there is something certain in life, its change and death. A meaningful life would mean an adaptation to these changes by tackling them effectively till death. On thinking almost all the time to do something in life that can add value to self, family and the world at large, I have been getting numerous ideas. But the most important requirement for every plan to be executed is money. I dont understand how and why this element has got so much importance on the earth that every matter ultimately takes us to it. Every effort to simplify this life only adds more complications to it. I don't really understand why life is such a painful journey. Perhaps, the ISKCON preaches the right point that we are all sinners thrown on earth to be punished for not following God's orders. And I have been thinking all the time as to what is God's order to me. Why has he sent me here? Whats the purpose of my existence? They say, every person has an objective to achieve in this world. And once the objective is achieved, the person is taken back to God's world. People on earth never learn quick. That's perhaps one reason why we live for 70-80 years till we realize our objective. Thanks to education and literacy initiatives that has made us more understanding and made achieving our objectives much quickly and thereby reducing the average life span to 50-60 years these days. I believe, this would keep decreasing the same way till it reaches 0-10 and one fine day, humans would become extinct. Oh, sorry, I am out of topic yet again. This, in fact, is the biggest advantage of blog (rather than essay writing) that you dont need to use the backspace button to delete the unwanted things written. You could just keep saying blah blah and blah. Lets get back to some sense

Entrepreneur is a french word that refers to someone who takes up an endeavor. The world is full of entrepreneurs. In fact, I believe, we might have more entrepreneurs than job going persons. An entrepreneur takes risks directly to earn income to lead life. The commonest example that Mr. Narayan Murthy of Infosys refers to is of the Kiranawallahs or Panwallahs. They buy goods and place them in their shops. They face huge uncertainty on whether these goods would be sold or not. Their life depends on the sale. More the sale, more the income. The sale is dependent on demand. Demand is dependent on need/desire. No income is assured anywhere. Yet, life moves on

Take an example of an auto driver. My observation on these people has been very huge. Specially, from the day I have moved in to Hyderabad, they have caught my attention. The road from Jubilee Hills to Kondapur is around 8 kms and you need to pay just Rs 8 to travel in the auto. Of course, its a shared auto which would be occupied by another 4-5 companions. Assuming that all the 5 passengers move from Jubilee Hills to Kondapur, the auto driver earns Rs 40 which might be loss making figure for him. However, there are passengers who get down in between and passengers who get into the auto on the way. The charges are all predefined. The minimum charge is Rs 5. Suppose I board from Jubilee Hills to my home, I pay Rs 6. Another passenger boards it up to HiTec city, he pays Rs 5. Mind you, the number of people boarding auto on this road is quite high. There should be no difficulty for the auto driver to get passenger. And further, another passenger gets in at HiTec City to go up to Kondapur. He pays Rs 5 and thus, the total income for this seat would be Rs 6 + Rs 5 + Rs 5, ie, Rs 16. His profitability has shot up by 100%. Thus, he makes profit. Now, lets come to a typical situation where he either does not get sufficient passengers or he gets 5 passengers who will directly go to Kondapur. He suffers a loss. The auto driver does around 10-15 rounds on this route each day and each round gives him a totally different level of income. While he might earn ZERO on one round, he could easily make Rs 100 on another round. All income earned throughout the day less the cost of petrol would be his income for the day. If the cost of petrol itself is higher, he has made a loss. Imagine the amount of risk involved. The total family is dependent on this income. How will he pay his home rent? How will he pay his son's school fee? How will he manage for the ration? Theoretically, positive thinking says, it might be possible and practically, it is NOT possible. But, the answer that the auto drivers have given me is YES. He does. He even goes for a 'Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai' with his wife. This was about this one route. The similar is the case with drivers across the country. They just take their vehicle and move on the road. They are blessed if someone boards their vehicle for a fee. If not, good luck for tomorrow. Yet, these thousands of people DO survive. They do live at least a near to comfortable life where they can take care of their needs as well as their families'. Some people who have received sound financial advise also have good savings for the future. I always keep chit chatting to these people when I travel. I have seen people who have been driving for 20 years, people who have purchased more autos and rent them and now, live on the rent, people who have not earned well and are into debts, people who are well educated and due to unemployment, have started driving autos. The auto industry has given life to a very good number of people and is certainly praiseworthy. One can learn a lot about business and entrepreneurship from these people. I definitely did learn risk taking

Risk taking is so true in case of the pan beedi wallahs. They sell something which has words written on it in bold (Injurious to health) which makes it unsuitable for selling. Yet, they do survive. They also have families and they do meet their needs

Take a look at a book vendor. Be it the smallest neighborhood shop that sells pencils and rubbers (for that matter, lets call it erasers because rubber mean something else in some cultures) or be it a biggie like Landmark, whats the assurance that books will be written and most importantly, whats the assurance that they will be purchased. How big risks do these people take by buying items worth more than they could ever afford, pay sky high rents for the premises, pay salaries to the workers without any assurance that this would yield them a sale or a profit. If you go to a market, there would be a lane of sweet shops. Whats the assurance that people will buy sweets and most importantly, whats the guarantee that they will buy it from your shop only? Yet, all these sweet shops survive. They have been in business from years and have been expanding their reach by opening new branches. Simplest examples like Mishra sweets, Bhagwan sweets, Keshav Reddy sweets are a live case to study and learn. The book sellers too survive. The purchases do happen and they do get profits. An author sacrifices such a long time and devotes himself to writing. Whats the guarantee that he will be read? Is there something that can assure him an income by writing books? If so, I would be the world's largest book writer (Kidding)

All shopkeepers face the same case. And count them. One-Ten in every locality multiplied by the number of localities multiplied by the number of cities multiplied by the number of states multiplied by the number of nations. That would give you a figure that can make you stand still for a good number of minutes

Then, why do we get afraid of taking up entrepreneurial options? Aren't we born entrepreneurs? We take risks from the day one of life but as we move on towards the latter years, fear starts gripping in and we tend to avoid risks and responsibilities. Saving Face becomes one of the most essential aspect of life. Many people turn down ideas, thoughts, leadership plans, initiatives, etc just to ensure that the society doesn't mock them in case of failure. I am one amongst thousands of such Indians. My grandfather was a doctor. A doctor gets income from patients. If the world is hale and healthy, the doctors will be the poorest class of people. It will be like a blue collared labor job like that of a mechanic. However, doctors make millions and thus, are treated like successful persons. Of course, education difference is always there but historically, its income that has laid a line of difference. Assume that all bachelors of engineering students in Mechanical or Automobile Engineering start up their own garages and charge us a bang for repairs and servicing. For example, Rs 100 for a tyre puncture (Oops, the word 'tyre puncture' has been the most confusing word I have ever heard in the automobile industry. It leaves me guessing whether these shops which title themselves as 'tyre puncture' shops heal the punctures or cause it. The title at least says that they are experts in puncturing tyre). Their incomes would shoot up. They would own a bungalow, car and of course, a pretty wife. If a generation of people does this, I bet, the next generation would call this as a lucrative career and these mechanics would move up the ladder calling themselves as 'Professionals' rather than 'Self employed'. That's perhaps how doctors have made it to a white collared career

I find auto driving in Madhapur or jalebi selling in Madhapur more lucrative than my current job. But if I express this before anyone and plan to take up this, I would lose my face. Will I be ever able to answer those people who ask me 'what are you doing?'. My parents too would not have a face. I would cut the nose of everyone related to me. If I say that I wish to take up insurance sales as a career, people would comment that I am a good for nothing fellow and finally doing this to earn daily bread and butter. Why do we Indians think so much about people? Why do we have to save our faces before the whole world? Why has it become an order to be answerable to large kith and kin that was reproduced by our forefathers (and foremothers, of course). Just let us do what we want to and do not poke your noses in our business. We never did

Coming to another big reason why I want to take up entrepreneurship. TIME. Yes, that's what I need. I need time to do a lot of things that I plan to do in my life. Being in a job, I would be struck to wash someone's ass for a good 10 hours, wash mine for 2-3 hours and spend the remaining time to give rest to the heavily stressed body and mind (Of course, heart. These days, the heart has been on the receiving end more than the brain or the body). Ever imagined how many hotels are in this world, how many vacation packages do all these and the tourism sector gives, how many nations are there on the earth, how many places are titled as 'a must see' in lifetime, how many movies have we produced in the past century and so on. When will I see all this? There are so many books to read, places to see, movies to watch, arts to learn, hobbies to enjoy, skills to incorporate and so on. I have a deep desire to do all that I can possibly do in the rest of my life. How much can be done considering that I am almost through with half of my living days? The biggest hurdle that stands in between me and these goals is money. Yes, you are right. Everything in this world takes us one single problem with the mankind, ie, money. Only God knows who did this mistake of creating money and made man greedy. All sufferings of man began with the discovery of this thing called money. Ever since then, life has been a misery. Plus, more than this all, I have many social obligations. I tend to have a sense of belonging to this place and I seriously want to do my bit to the nation and the world at large. Education is one option that I would love to consider as my social responsibility

The dream to being an entrepreneur seems quite big. And for people like me who do more talking than doing (Of course I do, but I talk as well). Have you seen a chaiwallah who is more than 30 years of age? Possibly yes but the number is quite less. Is it that people aged more than 30 do not like the career of selling tea. Or is it that they have made enough profits in the age of 20-30, selling tea worth 80 ps for Rs 4, which can easily help them sustain their future existence

Think over it, I will be back with more on that (when my mind scrolls on that topic again)

Social entrepreneurship is one area that I have been keenly interested in over the past few years. I will be giving this too a serious consideration

For the moment, I believe, my wings can stretch over the existing areas of my expertise, namely the fields of insurance, mutual funds, stocks and broking. I can also review the area of general insurance if need be. Life insurance must be one serious area of action in the coming days. Of course, to balance this huge risk that I might be facing, I need to continue education. Professional study might again appear as the option here but the difficulty involved is quite high and it would remain more a dream than a possibility

Its said, for pisceans, God has planned everything. Irrespective of whatever we plan, its only God's plan that is in execution. Even now, if I am writing this post, I am sure that the God has some plan behind this. We only need to wait and watch the plan. How far will I go ahead as an entrepreneur or will I ever be one is all something to watch in the coming days

Would something happen or these dreams of an Indian entrepreneur end as dreams just like the thousands of people like me

Friday, 27 November 2009

I was just reviewing my life over the past 22 years and I found that I had missed out a small part of my life from my memory. It was a 15 day experience that I had after I completed my life at SSBJ, went to Bangalore in search of a job, got a job, left it and came back to Hubli and before I left Hubli to go to Bangalore for CA Coaching at Medhas Institute. I was sitting idle at home and had nothing to do and I saw an ad of a job opening at Asterix BPO. The sight of the word BPO amused me with a question if BPOs did exist in Hubli. I thought of trying out and went ahead for the so called interview. I met Mr Venkatesh who was the owner of Asterix Computers which was primarily started to sell computers. Now, it did less computer selling and more of various other activities like computer education, computer servicing, providing OHPs for functions, etc, etc, etc. Though this was the communication I received, I honestly could not see anything other the OHP renting happening

No Hurray for being selected as it was not a tough deal with only one person coming there for the interview. Even if any number of people had come, I would easily manage to get through

And thus, I was appointed for a pay of Rs 4000 a month. The job was to call the big list of people and inform them about a new club house that was being constructed in Hubli. The name of the place was Cotton County Club and it is located right opposite to the airport in Gokul, Hubli. The membership fee was Rs 40000 at that time. I began the calling. Most of the times, the response was negative. I managed to catch hold of some people and arrange an appointment. I was supposed to someone to meet these people and explain them. But then, that someone never came and I only had to adore the role of that someone. Hubli is a small city and it was not a big thing. I still remember the first outdoor sale initiative that I took. It was to meet an owner of an automobile shop (I am desperately trying to remember the name but my memory is playing a game) located just opposite the petrol pump near old bus stand. It was too cold of an effort. I went and called out his name. He asked me my name and upon knowing why I came, he just took the brochure and said that he will call me (which never happened though). I walked back to my so called office which happened to be very near in Neeligin Road. It makes me laugh when I remember this incident

The next one was a chartered accountant. His office is right opposite the Janata Bazar near traffic island. If my memory is serious, his name is Mr. Kothari. This was one funny incident. I stepped in to his chamber. I was speaking to him and I got a call from my dad. I just swtiched off my cell and kept it on the table. Seeing that, this man took out his highly sophisticated Nokia mobile and another mobile and put them both on the table. I did not understand what this gesture meant. Whether it meant that I respect your decision of keeping your mobile away and here I keep mine as well or did it mean that you have a bloody double one double zero mobile and see what I have. Either way, I could not stop myself from taking the cellphone & keeping it back in my pocket. I told him some information which he never heard. After everything, he told me that I am a kid (of course, I was 18 then) and I must get someone elder to speak. This happened around 4 pm and at 6 pm, I was back with Mr. Venkatesh and another person from CCC (Cotton County Club). I believe it was one amongst the eight directors. If my memory can really support me, I remember that the main director of the CCC was Dr. Venkatesh Moolimani (I am not sure of the surname) who worked in KIMS (Later I discovered that this person was my neighbour), Mr. Shankar Belgavi (Owner, Renuka Sweets), Mr Sunil Kalra (I hope I have the name right. I am sure of Kalra but not Sunil, a businessman. I went to his shop after knowing him to purchase clothes for me and my dad. We did purchase. But we never went back), 2 brothers (I guess the surname was Hebsur) who were doctors and the rest are not coming to my mind now. Coming back to Mr. Kothari, I was instructed to sit outside and they had a chat in his chamber. The outcome was appearing positive though I never got to know if it was a successful close or not

I am sure it has started appearing like I might have spent a year here but I just spent 15 days. I had also been to the office of CCC at Hosur in Hebsur Kalyan Mantap. I visited at least 3-4 times. In a couple of visits, everyone got so friendly with me that I was offered to directly work for them for a higher pay. I was invited to see the CCC (though it did not happen as I left before the scheduled date of visit)

Soon came a decision by my dad that I should go for CA Coaching at Medhas Institute, Vijaynagar, Bangalore. I had to resign (Stop laughing). Now, the big question. Salary? I was there for an exact 15 days. With the kind of person I knew of the owner of Asterix BPO (which existed only by name), a person who worked for entire month also would receive salary after heavy bullshitting and butchering on the payment. So, this 15 day pay was a dream far from being true. Yet, I was serious as I did not even earn from my previous job at Mphasis BPO as it was found after 3 weeks that I was less than 18 years of age and I should get out. Now that I was more than 18, I had to get my pay. Mathematically, I had to receive Rs 2000. I claimed for it and Mr. Venkatesh started ignoring me keeping his hand on his forehead. There was this one girl (I dont remember her name) who was her PA. I pestered her a lot and she spoke to him only to get scolded. I was told that the company rules do not permit them to make payment to me as I have not worked for the minimum work period to get the salary, i.e., one month. I burst out asking if they were a company or a bunch of people fooling around. It was a little silly and arrogant but not receiving the money which I deserved after serious and honest efforts was hurting

I don't know how this popped up to my mind suddenly and I planned to write about it. Life is a very exciting journey and with people like me, it just turns excessively exciting at times and at all times. There are many such things that have been happening which I plan to write down in the coming days. Sometimes, I just can't believe that, once upon a time, life was like this

Thursday, 26 November 2009

Did you know that average age at which corporate Indians are facing heart problems? Someone told me its 28 and a half years. I thought it must be a confusion and the reference, may be, was to the minimum rather than average. But then, I got a clarification that it is the average. Also a clarification that young people in the age 22-25 are already experiencing heartaches (not the ones caused by love, bonding, etc but the original heart problems). We all get our bikes and vehicles serviced every 3rd month. A bike costing merely Rs 50000 gets so much attention in our lives. Whats the value of this human life? Did you ever service your body? Perhaps, you never thought of it. Even in the worst of cases when the body coughs, shows high temperature and tells us, "Come on, take me to a doc", we tell it, "Take a tab and sleep well, you will be fine by tomorrow". The human body is a machine that runs by itself. But an effort by us to contribute to its running will increase its efficiency tremendously

The moment your corporate life began, you forgot taking care of yourself. All you live for is your company. You have forgotten the fact that the company has hired you for 8 hours a day for 5 days a week. You have 16 hours a day on weekdays and 24 hours a day on weekends for you. But then, you never did utilize it for your life. This time was either spent to ease tiredness or doing some extra work or some other commitment. Have you ever sat and introspected about you? Though the most important element of my life is me, I never thought of me

Exercising is a very important activity. I would not waste time in explaining its importance as everyone knows it. But, no one does it. Did you ever try to find out how your heart is? Whats its condition? Go and get a Lipid Profile Test done. You will get all the motivation to join a gym now

With this brief introduction, I welcome you to the narration of my experience at a Personal Effectiveness Program. Of course, the program was sponsored by ICICI Bank and I was supposed to attend with another 19 of my colleagues. It was scheduled on 20 & 21 Nov 09 at The Grand Solitaire Hotel, Secunderabad. I was supposed to reach there by 9 am and I did. The sessions were taken by Ms. Aisshwarya. She is a resident of Chennai and runs her own company by name Worksenses. She has a PG from Symbiosis in HR and various international certifications. She has been into IT training for 8 years and HR training for 6 years, a massive total of 14 years of dealing with new human beings each day. The concepts that we shall be going through would be Effective, Time Management, Process and Assertiveness

For every product, there is a need for a production capacity. The product is the end result while the production capacity is the reason for this end result to be achieved. We all dream. Dreams may come true. It saddens us when they dont. But what must actually sadden is that we do not have the ability to make the dream come true. And the focus must be on this ability and not the dream. Dream is merely the result. Job is the focus and money is the end result. One must make efforts to improve his production capacity. Any effort to only see the product will make us lose. Remember the story of The Goose that laid Golden Eggs. While the eggs symbolically represent the product, the goose represents the production capacity. The hasty farmer, expecting to get all the eggs in a single go, tears the goose into 2 parts only to see it dead. Rather, he must have concentrated on improving his production capacity and do something by which the goose could lay 2 or more golden eggs a day. He could have tried to clone it. He could have tried to cross breed. But, he foolishly lost the production capacity concentrating on the product. Had he focused on the Production Capacity, he would be a winner. These days, there are 3 major spheres that we need to deal with- Physical, Mental & Relationships. All these three have certain value and need to be dealt with a lot of care

A study of the circle of influence and circle of concern was done describing how we affect other people and vice versa. We can either pass on our influences to them or our concerns as well. So, its more important for us to develop influences for better results

A video titled "Even Eagles Need A Push" by David Mcnally was shown. It was a learning experience. We were told about the 5 qualities of a Confident Empowered person

Self Appreciation

Vision

Purpose

Commitment

Contribution

An example of Terry Fox was shown who suffered from cancer and had lost his one leg. He ran across for thousands of miles across US to raise funds for cancer research. He could have easily given an ad in the newspaper or TV to raise funds. But he ran to show that you can run even with one leg. He could have used funds to cure cancer but his aim was to remove cancer from the roots and the funds were aimed at cancer research. With such a vision, he wanted to raise USD 1 million while for his big surprise, he ended up with USD 14 million

The basic management concept of time management deals with the concept of urgency and importance quadrants. There are four quadrants: Urgent & Important- DO, Urgent & Not Important- DEVELOP, Not Urgent but Important- AVOID, Neither Urgent nor Important- DROP. One must try to follow this principle to make effective utilization of time

A learning about process was done through various role plays. A boat making exercise laid emphasis on how processes are important for an organization. Organizations must always be process dependent and not person dependent. Else, they will cease to exist in the long term as persons do not live forever

Assertiveness- The art of saying NO was learnt. However, from the practical perspective, saying no to the manager has huge concerns. Many a times, we need these 5 minute breaks to take an urgent call, some concern when you are not keeping well, you might get a minute late, you might need approval for some cost incurred, etc. All this is in the manager's hand. A no to him would mean a no to you as well. And with the kind of managers who have gone to that position just because there was availability at some point of time and luck picked them irrespective of their qualification or knowledge or experience, it becomes impossible to say no. Yet, we learnt certain principles that help in being assertive

Be honest about what is relevant

Stick to your bottomline

Make sure you are negotiating in equal terms

The entire program was full of many role plays and group activities that made it a fun learning experience. Such breaks away from work add a lot of value to the employees. It acts as a huge motivation for them to perform well. Someone asking you to take care of your health and life and concentrate on family, etc is something that we never hear at work. A feel good element inspires people to take initiatives in life to move ahead. There was a lot of learning and a good value addition. My sincere thanks to everyone who made this possible. I have decided to go to a gym soon (I have been planning ever since 2003) and a lipid profile test done too. I have even planned to take my body for regular servicing. When will you?

Thursday, 19 November 2009

For the first time in my life, I had my own cellphone and it was a Nokia 1100- Made for India. At that time, I was in Bangalore and I had just joined Mphasis BPO. And I needed a cellphone. Having just begun my career, I chose this mainly because of the cost factor. It fetched me 3200 rupees at that time. The price has come down to around 2000 now but at that point of time, it was worth it. I also heard news that the production of this model has been stopped now. I am not sure about this.

Coming to the cell, it was a pretty good looking, compact version with quite good features. The USP of the product was its torchlight and its strong body which were meant for the Indian conditions. I liked using the mobile. A black and white screen with some attractive options of ringtones, picture messaging, etc was something new and delightful in those days. I was happy with it till it was stolen by my housemaid in my hometown- Hubli. :-)

Nice experience. If I had not lost the cell, I would be still using the same. As on now, I am using Nokia 1600 and I like that too

Wednesday, 18 November 2009

After a tiring examination of Chartered Accountancy, PE-II, I was looking for something to refresh myself. On having discussed the same with my friends, we decided to go out for a lunch. Phat! Came a suggestion.

Why not watch a movie and then go for lunch? Hmmm... Good idea. The last one I saw was Dhoom 2. We agreed and started discussing. Good boy Bad boy, Tararumpum and some other names came up. But the winner was Spiderman 3

It all began with the introduction of the history of spiderman. I was very happy to see the story of spiderman till now. Its one of the most brilliant ideas the director has come up with. Instead of just showing the characters and heavy music, he has given a jhalak of Spidey 1 and Spidey 2

The movie was good. However, its made too too too ... complicated (Have they employed any Indian director to work on the script? :-) ) The kind of behavior and attitude shown in the movie is somewhat unworthy. Spidey kisses some other gal and the heroine gets frustrated. She goes on looking for someone and finally ends up with the man who is a friend of Spidey but due to certain reasons, he has become his enemy. However, the affair just stops with a kiss when she realizes that she was doing wrong. Further, we see a Sandman who has a very funny character (although he has played a villain, I call the character funny because of my personal opinion). Even he is against Spidey. There is another guy who’s a coworker of Spidey. Even he gets against Spidey due to Spidey’s interruption. In fact, the coworker was doing wrong things and that's why, Spidey goes against him.

So, Spidey has 3 enemies now

Even his girlfriend gets frustrated because of him. And all this happens due to the black chemical thing which has caught Spidey and made him make misuse of his powers and also become egoistic. The story goes on well. Finally it so happens that all these enemies get together to take revenge on Spidey. However, the first person(the one who I have told to be Spidey’s friend but has become an enemy due to misunderstandings) realizes that he was wrong.

The sequel is too sexy. As usual, all the big fights in the world have happened for a lady :-)

The heroine is held by Sandman and the journalist. When Spidey realized that the black chemical is killing him, he throws it away and the journalist gets it. So, the journalist and Sandman plan to catch Spidey and finish the game. They hold the heroine as hostage and Spidey comes to rescue her. The whole of New York city is watching everything. Spidey gets hit by them very badly. People feel that its the end of Spiderman. But then, things take a turn when his friend comes to his rescue. Both fight against them and (obviously) win the game. The sad thing being that Spidey’s friend lays down his life to save Spidey. Even the journalist gets killed. Sandman heads away from the world after telling his story to Spidey and apologizing

Things go sweet and Spidey gets back his girlfriend and finally, he presents that ring given by the old lady to her

Now, what was this all about? Its very simple. The movie portrays some common issues to us. Its about relationships. Its about telling how even a great person like spiderman can be caught by evil thoughts. It tells us that we need to give time to our loved ones when they need us. Duty does come first, but love should not be ignored. Even love is a duty. Ego is yet another thing that can spoil the whole world. The movie has good lessons to teach

The movie is pictured beautifully and children have a blast at theatres. The USP of Spidey is the love of kids for this character. And the funniest thing for me was I watched the movie in Hindi and I have just narrated a few lines which will make you ROFL

Monday, 16 November 2009

Well, hope everyone noticed that the topic is-5 best songs I would sing to my beloved but I am writing on the topic- 5 best songs I sang to my beloved.... Bole toh! Experience beta, experience

Nothing is bigger in this world than experience

I was in a residential school. Only boys. We were all army chaps. Strong, athletic, handsome:-). So, any gal getting attracted to us was common. Hehehe... Joking! But seriously, in case we met gals, there would definitely some or the other hungama. There were many too but not in my life

dheere dheere hawa chal rahi haijaise koi ghazal ban rahi haichupke chupke nazar mil rahi haijhukte uthte palak yeh keh rahi haioh jaana lets fall in loveoh jaana
And then this falling getsdeeper and deeper. So deep that people start forgetting their names. 24X7, just love on the mind. Even demons and college gundas will start wearing good dress and become nice gentlemen. Seriously, I saw a person who had not had a haircut from 8 to 9 years and his mom n scolded him everyday. But the moment, the gal told him-Tum inn baaloan mein achche nahin dikhte ho, the whole scene changed. My God, he had a haircut, wore a white shirt n blue formal n came and ........ hold your breath.... he came and ....... just think what he did ...... he came and ...... attended ONE CLASS. That was such a day, even my lecturer was shivering and he ended the class 15 mins in advance :-) All this because that gal told him that she would not see him if he doesnt cut his hair

Yeh le mere 4th rocking song

Jaana jaanaDekha nahin hai tujhko kal sePal pal kate mera mushkil seAa poochh le zara is dil seJaanaRaahon ko tere main takta hoonJee jeeke main yahan marta hoonMain pyaar bas tujhe karta hoonJaana JaanaSamjhaoon main kaise is dil koJaanaYe maane naJaanaYe samjhe na
And as usual. Wahi purani nayi kahaani. I would not explain this much coz..... my heart will cry...... kyun...... same wine in the old bottle..... she left me :-( ..... he dumped me..... and all these things and the wasteful usage of 3 precious years of life. Thats why people do well in 12th, fail in degree and again shine in PG

He comes the concluding song putting an end to eevrything and saying that you are my love and you will always remian(till the next one comes)

No information is meant to hurt anyone. Its just educational. And a general tendency that I have observed in my college as well as the many other colleges too. Note that every song is takes the word- jaana. Jaana! is a dream, say something like Maaya in Dil Toh Paagal Hai. However, I have made the story meet the general happenings in our college. I never sang any of these songs to anyone.

Ek baras purane ki baath hai bhaiyya. Bahut dhoop thi. The sun was scorching and made me not to get out of my home. Arey! Hum kya kum hai, hum jaate rahe. But walking in this hot sun for around 5 km to college and back was a tough stuff. Seeing this, my dad felt pity on me and told me to purchase a vehicle. We went to the showroom and I chose to buy a Bajaj Pulsar

However, due to certain financial obligations, we were unable to purchase the bike then

Later, in the rainy season, however, the rain God, Varuna, showered his blessed raindrops on me and I got fever. Fever and blessing?Yeah obviously, the very next day I was taken to the showroom to buy a vehicle for me. Vrooooooooommmmmmmmm..................

I was told by dad that we could not afford to buy a Pulsar. So, I had to make a choice among the other ones. I did not like any vehicle. I was told by the salesman that a new vehicle was getting launched the next day. I returned home. I was watching TV and this ad came, Jhalak Dikhlaja! Bajaj Platina. Oh my God! I just loved the ad. The way it was pictured. The way the lights went flashing. The way how the gal n guy went moving. It was all like...... heaven

I went to the showroom and had a test drive. I liked it and we purchased the vehicle.

I have been using it for a year now and I have liked it, in face, loved it. Coming to the experience

Unlike other 100cc vehicles, this vehicle has a stronger pick up. It can easily race over the hill in the 3rd gear(single person) and 2nd gear(2 persons). However, for my dad’s splendor, I need to cut down to gear 1

The vehicle is comfortable. Its definitely as comfortable as Unicorn or CBZ Xtreme, but compared to other 100 cc bikes, its quite comfortable

The gear changing is quite easy with 4 frontal gear to speed up and 4 back gears to slow down

The servicing offered by my dealer is too good. I am very happy by their support. However, one disappointing thing is that they offer only 4 free services after which the charge is Rs 125. This is the policy of Bajaj Motorcycles and I wish, they could upgrade this. Because other companies offer 6 to 8 free services

Coming to the sexiest point in the vehicle. Believe it or not, I am getting an average mileage of 80 kms on this vehicle. I was told by the dealer that the mileage will be over 75 kms. To test the truth of this fact, I have maintained the fuel records too

Up to first servicing- 56 km per litre

From 1st servicing to 2nd servicing- 71 km per litre

From 2nd servicing to 3rd servicing- 82 km per litre

From 3rd servicing to 4th servicing- 81 km per litre

Now, I will get the next reading when I go to the 5th servicing

And I am saving a lot of money which unnecessarily go out for petrol cost of I had taken a higher end model(150 cc)As far as reliability is concerned, its a user’s delight. 100% reliable. No breakdowns, no problems, nothing. Just a blessing

Handling and control is excellent. The brakes are too good. I feel like its stronger than disk brakes(or its due to my strength, God knows) And as far as control is concerned, i understood one very good thing after taking this vehicle. using a 100 cc bike prevents me from over speeding. The traffic in cities is so high that I see accidents happen every day. In case, I am driving my friend’s Unicorn, Pulsar or karizma or any strong vehicle, it tempts me to speed up and makes driving risky. However, its very simple, smooth driving with this vehicle

In short and simple words, this vehicle from Bajaj Autos is an excellent version in the 100 cc vehicles category. I was told by the dealer that they had record sales during Ramzan and Diwali last year. People loved the vehicle because of its

Low cost

No maintenance

High mileage- I have saved so much of petrol money as my pocket money

Good looks (in its category)

Superb pick up

Finally, to conclude, its been a good experience using this vehicle. Its an integral part of my life now. It has made a lot comfortable to me and I am glad that I chose to purchase this

Wednesday, 21 October 2009

On questioning myself about what is going on in my life, I can only find that I am at the height of uselessness. Over the past 4 years, I have been planning to do a lot of things but none of these could turn into something so successful that I can be proud of or something that can add value to life. Well, let me not repeat the stories as everything has been described by me a good number of times in this blog. Its time for action, its time to rise, its time to move on with something valuable for a lifetime. On giving a thought on these lines, the immediate path that I could choose to move on is ICWAI. My CA registration has become invalid and I need to pay Rs 7500 to renew it which I can not afford as on date. For a fresh registration to CS, CFP, etc too, I would have to shell out some money. Luckily, my ICWAI registration is valid for a few more days. It expires in Nov 2009. And the exam is in Dec 2009. However, it has been confirmed from the institute that I can apply for the Dec 2009 exam as the application would be logged in October itself. But then, if I do not appear for Dec exam, my registration would become invalid and I would have to register afresh by making the necessary fee payment. On the other hand, if I write the Dec exam, I can also write the exam in June 2010 as my coaching completion is valid till then

The next point is that, to write the Inter exam, I need to complete Computer course applicable as well. But then, if I am appearing for only one group, there is no need to do this. It can be done before I apply for the second group. So, to ensure that I complete my ICWAI Inter by June 2010, I need to write the exam in Dec 2009. But then, should I take this as a mere attempt or can something be done? With just 50 days to go, it would be a mere foolishness to think that I will study and clear the exam. People who go for coaching for years together find it difficult to write these exams. And a person who has not touched books for years and he is not having enough time in a day to study, what can he be expected to do?

I also gave it another thought, how long will I pull this race? Its already 4 years. Even my registrations have become invalid. One can imagine how much I have ignored these aspects. Can I say that I have pitied myself a lot? Not seriously, but yes, I can say that I have given myself a lot of reasons to not to do it. Even now, if I say that I shall clear the exam by June 2010, I have enough reasons from Financial to Emotional to Work to Time availability to xyz. And then, give up. How long will I repeat this process? Is it not high time to make things happen rather than wait for them to happen? After all, I am a doer, I do everything but this is one thing which I have only been saying

With all this, I have exposed myself before the world. And now, I need to save my skin. I have to finish this race at any cost. And to ensure that I will succeed, I need to even make a good use of this attempt in Dec 2009. Why not make an effort? I am 99% sure that I will not be able to do it as professional exams are not jokes to be learnt in a crash course. But that 1%, that 1% can do something, that 1% is hope, that 1% can be a miracle, and that 1% can write a history. Why not concentrate on this 1% which is more powerful than the 99% which is mere dustClearing the exams or not is a secondary aspect as things are not completely in my hands. Factors like the type of questions appearing, the kind of correction that happens, etc too have an important role to play. You might know everything but one and that one question comes in the exam. You do not know anything except one and that one itself comes as a question in the exam. Exams too are a game of probability

One thing that definitely is my hand is 3 hours a day (10 hours at office, 1 hour for travel, 2 hours for hygiene, 2 hours for food, 6 hours of sleep). I can steal additional time from sleep hours. Further, on weekends, I have the entire day at my disposal. The challenge is to make use of these 3 hours sincerely to cover a certain set target of study each day. And let me make it a serious issue of it this time. If I do not use 3 hours a day for studies in the right manner and compelte the tasks for the day, I shall punish myself. The punishment might be anything. For the moment, I have decided that if I do not complete my work each day, I will strip. One day, my shirt. If I still stand bold without shame, my trousers followed by other accessories and if I still do not understand the essence, I shall be forced to throw myself without any cover on my body before this world. After all, whats the use of such a person who is unable spend 3 hours a day sincerely towards self improvement. There would remain no difference between me and people who are today dependent upon others for their food and clothing. This is a crude step that I am taking to ensure that I stick up to the plan and things HAPPEN

Its 1 am, Oct 22 2009 now and the new day has come. A day that would begin a turnaround in life

Monday, 12 October 2009

Its not even a few days that I expressed my dissatisfaction with the current job role I am handling and the change has come. I just don't know how to thank the Almighty for making this happen. I have been waiting for long to see this change in the job role. In fact, every one of us handling the current skill want to move out of it and deal with something new. The current job profile mainly deals with handling Indian customers having bank accounts with us. In a typical day, 95% of the work would be repetitive, 4% of the work would be with a little twist in the tale and if you are lucky, you might see that 1% as something new which adds some learning. Having been in the same process for about 10 months, it had become a real hectic task to lead a normal life. I honestly considered my life not less than that of a tamed dog. Moreover, my tussles with some things and people added more problems into life. Recently, I had such tussles and I was getting an indication that something is going to happen soon that would badly affect me. After all, in a corporate sector, life is too much dependent on how well you maskafii people, esp, the one who is your reporting authority. And I, I can never do this stuff. After all, my notion of life is very clear, "Sar kata sakte hain hum par sar jhuka sakthe nahin". If a person is good, I will give him all respect irrespective of cast, creed, sex, position, grade, earning, influence, etc. And if a person is not deserving, I would never consider giving a damn even if it be a relation, which if handled this way, can shatter my career into pieces and wreck my life. That was what exactly I did and I kept receiving a lot of serious comments over my attitude, behaviour, etc. People started feeling that I am too much of a show off as I am successful in some arena. People started having a feeling that I am flying too much. So, plans came up to cut my wings (which were never there). Restrictions started flowing, rules were tightened, the clock was referred more than ever, the communication was barged with word to word listening (Even during training, so much stress would not be laid). It was all OK OK till some time

One very important point that I would like to make here is that I never spoke a word for just me. Whatever I spoke was a combined opinion of all the people in the team. Many a times, opinions and feelings are not expressible. But then, I was like the voice of my team and would just say whatever was in our hearts straight on the face. Perhaps, this was one reason that I was highlighted as egoistic, etc. And the moment, I would voice a comment, people would obviously support and the answerer would have no answers left. Now, if you are unable to answer, you can do two things. Go ahead, search the answer, solve the query. The second one, ignore the question, take that questioner away, and things would be fine. Its an unfortunate truth that most people in our lives use the second postion, especially, if they are having power vested with them. Even in my personal life, I have observed the same. All questions that I asked are still questions. Answering questions appropriately with 100% truth is the most essential element to build trust. One must always remember that life is nothing but journey of building your trustworthiness. The more trustworthy you are, the more successful would your heart feel. One question that we all need to ask ourselves each day is, "How many hands have my hands supported?". It might be the smallest of the action from helping someone with disability to cross a road, helping someone with notes to study well, offering a glass of water to the needy, putting off a light that your roommate forgot to put off, being there for someone who is need of support, etc to big things like donating money for public welfare, sponsoring a child's education, etc. How many acts of kindness have you done? How many thank you messages have you received? Have these increased? If yes, at what rate? Thats your current rate of growth in life. But then, there is another set of people who take things in a different way. For them, they feel like the kings of the earth and try to command love and respect from everyone by forceful measures. People who fear might surrender their fake respect to such kings. However, no one would respect them from heart. But then, this fake respect is more than enough for such kings. They feel on top of the world. And if someone doesn't do that, the tussle begins. I fail to understand when will people realize that love, respect, etc are not asked or commanded. They are to be earned by consistent process of the trust building process. Such kings would not feel much happy if a subordinate, who does not have a good relationship with him, does a big deal of work that has benefited the entire kingdom. They would make effort to call it as luck or somehow ignore it. But then, if you belong to that elite group of the king's chamchas, your smallest contributions are upheld as remarkable achievements. Well, I am going too much into this. Let me just put it in a simple form, "Yatha Raja, Tatha Praja" which means "As is the king, so are the citizens". Thats why, these days, most of the business leaders have chosen the quote "Be the change that you wish to see in the world" as their favorite quote and guiding line in life. If the king is honest and humble, the subordinates would have no second thought to do what is told. And if not, the question answer session would go to a unending meaningless conversation

Well, it was informed to me on Saturday evening that I should come to the office on monday with a clean shave, neat dress and a tie. On asking why, I did not get any answer. We tried guessing reasons and most striking one was that my coming to late to office on that one day has become an opportunity to create an issue and I might be facing some very senior person and have a bad time. I did reach the office today in time in the said manner to find nothing. I waited for long and then I was informed, in such a way like you are punishing someone, that I have been moved out from the team into a different team. Oh my God! I was jumping. Send me anywhere in this world for any business but relieve me from here. But the funniest part of it was that I was being communicated this news like a judge is announcing a death sentence to someone. But then, this decision to throw me out from the team came as a blessing in disguise to me. What more could I have asked for? In happiness, I forgot to ask, where have I been moved to. But then, the very next moment, I was being informed about my new job role where I shall be handling NRI customers. Its a pure sales role with big targets to achieve. It definitely built up pressure but I am sure, not as much as the current role is giving. At least, I would be able to interact with some sensible people finally

I would like to bid an adieu to my team today. A journey of about 10 months would fade soon. New colleagues would step in and the old ones will get older till one fine day, memory fades them off the mind. One good thing is that Raghu and Vivek have also been sent here. So, this would be a joyous reunion for us. I would definitely remember the times spent with this team, which is incidentally my first work group, for a long time. And guess what, all these people, now, want to move to the team where I am moving. But then, this being a pilot project (first of its kind) may not ask for more people. And finally, thanks to everyone in the team. I would again repeat one thing that I repeatedly say, "No one in this world is bad. People are just wrong at that point. Situations sometimes make them wrong but most of the times, their thoughts makes them. A person becomes bad when he knows that what he is doing is wrong and yet, he does it". I wish everyone a fruitful career ahead and a happy life ahead

This post has been written by me out of a lot of excitement of moving out but then I don't know what kind of a place I will be moving into. There is every possibility that the new place might turn out to be more horrendous. Moreover, this post merely deals with one single job related problem that I was facing till now to have appear to be resolved. Whether it is really resolved or not not would be known only after a month's time

Speaking about the other angles of life, the pressure has been building up heavily. I don't know when the volcano would erupt and destroy what. I have been looking for at least a little progress in life but that has been totally curbed. I even failed in my Symbiosis exams recently. Life has been taking a real test of me. Failure is creeping in. And for the first time in 3 years, I have not received my income from LIC. This goes to show that a major financial aid that I was receiving till now would cease to be there in the future if I do not make some attempts to pump in some business. Thus, I have been dumped into the worst of situations of life. And above all, my morale has gone down due to the kind of responses I have has from people over a month's period when they got to hear about the problems that I am facing. Not a single helping hand came (as usual). Well, when your own hands are not ready, where the hell do you others to land in. This has been one of the most disheartening phase of my life which has forced me to make some serious decisions over these things. People in my life, unfortunately, do not understand words like effort, humbleness, honesty, truth, consistency, trust, etc. Forget it, why drag people into this

Finally, I would thank God once again for this boon in disguise and request him to do something about the other problems of my life too. I know that you are helpless too as the people who are supposed to take initiative are putting the task on you. Now, how can I expect you to come down to earth for a simple creature like me? I don't know when people will understand that God does nothing except supporting good efforts and destroying bad elements. To have God to support you, you must at least make effort. You pray all year that you should win a lottery and the God is convinced and throws all luck on your name. But then, who will purchase the lottery? People don't realize even that they should at least be responsible enough to purchase it

I would like to remember one line of Mahatma Gandhiji before I close this post"The person who sees a rape or murder or crime or anything wrong happen and keeps quiet is equal, in fact, worse than the rapist or the murderer or the criminal or the doer of any wrong action"

So, if your hands do not move or your mouth doesnt work seeing someone suffer, you are more responsible for that situation than the actual person who is reponsible for it. More so if it is a loved one or a person who is dependent on you

Sunday, 4 October 2009

Over the past weeks, life has been very unfair to me. I have been failing and facing problems in each and everything that I do. No matter what effort I make, I am getting no solution to any problem. Perhaps, my lady luck is not with me. Luck is one very important thing in anyone's life. It can make a big difference. Though we say that luck favors the people who make efforts, its not the truth always. Sometimes, the God tests so much that the elastic gets stretched beyond its limits and life gets broken. A human has its own limits beyond which it becomes difficult to survive the pains

At the age of 19, I was in Bangalore in search of a job. Yes, at 19 only. I did find a job at Mphasis BPO. It was a BPO/call center boom time then and there was no dearth of jobs. The salary was around Rs 12000. And where do I stand today? After doing a 3 years BCom with splendid performances in every field of activity and a specialized PGDBO to become a professional banker, what have I gained? Rs 2000 per month? And I had to spend 4 years for this. Guess what, the loan that I have taken to fund my education at IFBI is still in the repayment process and I need to pay Rs 4000 a month towards it. So, in all, I am taking home Rs 10000 a month which is a loss of Rs 2000 compared to what I was earning in 2004 as a 19 year kid. Had I continued there, I would have at least a couple of promotions and would have been earning quite bagful. I heard that those people who joined with me at Mphasis are drawing around Rs 40000 now. So, I must say that the plan of returning back to Hubli to continue my studies was the first mistake that I did. May be, I never required it though the world said that its very important. Academics definitely are important but they can not make one successful in life

I came back to Hubli and my BCom life began. It was a great celebration of success in the initial days. I cleared my PE-I exams in CA as well as CWA. I topped the college in the 1st semester exams. Life took a totally different shape. And the decision of continuing with studies, which I reffered as a wrong decision, now became a delight for life. I had found my lady luck

Soon, things went haywire and I could not do well in the CA exams further. I failed in them. I missed the tuition classes. I even missed the exams in the end. Having no hope left, I started planning something different for life to proceed it further. After all, one cant afford to keep quiet and sit idle. Specially the one who has so many goals to reach and so many commitments to fulfill

I kept hopping from one place to another place, one idea to another, one destination to another without any certainty in life. A list of venturing that I have done might surprise anyone. Perhaps, the saying that a person must have only one goal and must keep moving towards that direction only is more applicable to me. But then, this is an era of multitasking and uncertainty. A heavy risk taking attitude, though it has made me successful, has spoilt me

Now, where do I need to hop for the next hope? Oh, before that, let me come to why do I plan to hop. Let me get practical about life and speak out. Let this not be called as cribbing. All these I thought that these problems will be there but we need to adapt and excel and make ourselves successful. But now, I have found that these problems would continue to exist for a lifetime

Imagine taking calls for 10 hours a day speaking all through the day to over 100 people who call in from various places with their queries. The ears and mouth are dead by the end of the day. The mind becomes restless and keeps blasting molecules of blood out of the nerves which makes one feel that his head is going to burst out. We keep getting emails that speaking 30 minutes continously on the phone causes this damage, that damage, etc; speaking on a phone for 1 hour can make you this, that, etc; then how do call centers function? I have inquired with my friends at other call centers and I have found that they take 20-80 calls in a day. Usually, they do not cross 60 on a normal day. However, I take a minimum of 100 calls each day and the number has reached 200 several times. On an average, the daily volume should be around 130-150. This is why we are called as the most efficient utilizer of human resources. Before you say "Thank you for calling in. You have a good day", you already have someone to be wished "Good morning! How may I help you?". This process has made life so mechanical that we all have become machines

I am having no point against my organization. Its definitely one of the best and a great place to work

Personally, I have problems due to my own reasons

The foremost one being the heavy headache that I face each day

Secondly, I am not finding any growth in the job that I do. Neither do I have a chance of promotion mainly due to the ongoing crisis and also because there have been no promotions in the past 2 years. So, if promotions do happen in April 2010, it would be for those people who have been waiting for 2-3 years. Of course, they need it more badly than us. Nor do I find the job enough satisfying. Firstly, the pressure is too high. Its painful

Nextly, the learning has come to an end. These days, even before the customer has spoken about his problem, the solution is already given by us. Unfortunately, there has been nothing more to learn. And whatever I learn here would be of no use once I move out of here or even stay back with a different job role. All this happened way back in May 2009. From then, I started taking my own initiatives to add some value to my job and make it at least a little interesting. I started giving ideas to make products and processes better. In the beginning, these ideas were appreciated and I was told that they would be sent to the business team and I would get the result. That never happened. One fine day, out of impatience, I forwarded these directly to a very senior personnel and I got a good response from there. I was asked to prepare a project and submit it so that he can take it further. I did that. In fact, I did all that in my home spending extra time. Such deep was the desire to come out of the boredom of my job. I did a lot and even now, the work is going on. Though all this is unofficial and has no impact on my performance or growth, it adds some adrenalin into me as I am able to apply my skills and do some activity which can be termed 'productive'

The most painful part of the job is that neither I am adding any visible value to the organization nor the organization is adding any visible value to my career or life. Though I get an experience certificate for a year's service, its not going to be of use in the market as it would be a mere customer service experience which would stand equivalent to that of a call center executive and nothing more. The job of reading out what is written on the screen and follow the informed process to serve the customers does add no knowledge value to a person. It would be a mere mechanical operation of the said process

I understand that people at my age with the similar educational qualifications (and in case, more) are doing the same job. But, what I believe is, I am not meant for this. I am not a labourer, a day wager or someone like that who is instructed to do some work and he does it that way and gets paid. I am much more than this. Even if not, I want to be much more than a mere labourer

I can definitely prove my stance and in fact, I have been doing that by providing various ideas also. I have also thought of moving into product designing or content writing, etc but at big organizations, the rigidity is so high that it would not be possible to just move someone just like that. For that, the openings have to come and then we need to apply in the prescribed format and go through the whole process and get selected. And there too, it shall be very difficult to implement things. The simple reason is that we do not have any decision making power or authority. The resistance to change would be too high as a change would mean more work

All in all, my current job profile is good to develop communication skills and nothing else. However, in some case, people have been losing their communication skills as voluminous interactions happen in Hindi and that has hampered the English accent to some extent. Many a times, they are speaking in English and they have to use so many Hindi words in between as the English synonym would not immediately come to the mind. Unfortunately, I am one among these people

Another annoying part is that we are allotted a timesheet each day which tells us about what we need to do on a typical day. The time sheet would contain 2 breaks of 15 minutes each and one break for lunch for 30 minutes. For the remaining 8 and a half hours, we are supposed to sit on the chair in front of the workstation with our eyes on the screen, headset on the head, hands on the mouse and keyboard, ears sacrificed to the callers and minds to follow the process. Thats pretty tedious. And you are not supposed to move for whatever reason without getting a prior approval. Sounds like a jail but then, its acceptable. After all, businesses are not social organizations. Morever, you have come here by your choice and no one is forcing you to do this job either. If you want, you do it. Else, the door is open

Further, you are not supposed to have lunch at any other time other than your scheduled time. If the computer has planned your lunch at 11 AM, you have to go for it no matter whether you are hungry or not. If your lunch has been scheduled at 3 PM, you should go at 3 PM only even if the canteen closes before that and you might not get your food. Who's bothered? Who asked you to join here? Did anyone force you to stay here? If you are not happy, you can leave. Dont complain, dont crib

You are not supposed to have your food for more than 30 minutes. You can definitely come back leaving your food unfinished. After all, is it more important than job? You are being allotted 2 breaks of 15 minutes by the computer and you have to go for all your regular activities like drinking a glass of water or a cup of tea, going to the loo, taking a tablet to beat the headache, etc. Of course, you can piss and shit in your trousers. Who stopped you?

But then, there are some supportive things too. Suppose you are not keeping well, you can take a break. But then, you have to take a permission for that. And no one would go to take a permission as that would be another source of headache. Suppose you get the permission and you face the similar problem in the future, you would be doubted as a liar or lazy or uninterested to work, etc. So, people always consider it better to work rather than care for themselves. After all, whats wrong. They are getting paid for it. Are they doing it free of cost?

All this has been building a lot of pressure on me. I definitely do not have anything against the organization. I respect the system. But then, the problem is with me as I am unable to adapt to this system. Having food when the computer feels like, drinking water with someone's permission, going to the loo when scheduled for it is not something that I can really do. Honestly speaking, no one does. But then, no one mentions of it and I am making a mention

The word "why" is one word that I hate to answer when the question pertains to my personal life. And off late, this word has been rising a lot of times on me. Specially from the time there has been a change in the team structure, I have been unable to sustain with whatever has been happening with me

Last month, in a business contest, I generated leads to the tune of almost Rs 1 crore and I got the compliment as, "It was your luck"

Recently, due to the heavy rains, I got delayed in getting back to Hyderabad after leave. In fact, the intensity of rains and floods was so high that my journey of 12 hours took me 42 hours to complete. I went a couple of hours late to the office and there were already plans to fire at me. I was asked to go back home as I came late though I had informed it in advance that I would be late. When I explain the situation that had arisen that the problem that had happened and how the entire South India is suffering, the comments that came was like I was lying. I jut dont understand how can people be so silly to think that I took an extra day's leave in the name of rains and floods and now I am giving a lame excuse for that. I felt ashamed that I am working under such silly people and how foolish was I to explain my problem to them. And mind you, I still approve them as right people. After all, they are paying you. You can always leave if you not interested. Who is stopping you

Switching over to another issue, ie, unavailability of time. I am registered with SCDL for PGDBA and I have been finding no time to study for it. I have been feeling very for this as I have almost spent about Rs 35000 towards it and things are not in a good shape. The amount that was borrowed to do this yet remains to be returned. Thus, all these issues have forced me take a serious look into life again and take some serious steps to put things in order. Everything is in a mess right from my body which has become somewhat comparable to that of Yokozuna due to no physical activity to my mind, heart, soul and what not

Now, the usual dilemma that hits to me very year. What next?

I seriously do not understand what keeps happening in my life. I just dont realise where the paths are leading. Should I define my own paths and move on them irrespective of whatever happens? Making a right decision to lead my life has been the biggest problem ever since I was born. No decision suits my life. I am such a constant changer that I can never settle on one thing for a long time

Moreover, my lady luck is never there with me when I make a decision. Thats why none of my decisions stick for a long time. After all, who's bothered? Are you not getting paid? What more do you want? Compassion, support, etc? Come on, is she not paying you enough every monthAs always, the big list of options lies in front of my eyes now as I get ready for a change. The same have been listed here priority wise

LIC and only LIC

CA without articleship and stress on LIC work

CA with articleship of 6 hour a day and LIC work whenver possible

CWA alongwith MCom and LIC work

CS alongwith LLB and LIC work

CAT coaching alongwith LIC work

GMAT coaching alongwith LIC work

Stock broking business

Job

A permutation and combination of the same and any other avenues needs to decided over and the move needs to be done quickly. But the biggest hurdle in all this is that I am supposed to make certain liability payments every month and for this, I need a minimum of Rs 20000 every month

If I leave the job and venture into business or studies, I am risking Rs 14000. If these sources do not yield me Rs 14000 a month, I would land upto into bigger problems, higher pressures and it would be a more painful situation. CA-CWA-CS would need me to study for 4 years from now and that would really be a difficult thing to do considering the current situations in life

A complete analysis needs to be done before I take any further step. I just wish, my lady luck, at least this time, would come to support me to take the right decision